Kaleidoscopes
by Mariagoner
Summary: The Hyuuga are a family with many paths to follow. Here are just a few that might eventually be taken. NejiHinata, Hanabi, Hiashi. Drabble fic.
1. Chapter 1

This is a series of Hinata- and Hyuuga-centered drabbles that were originally written for the amazing Runespoor7 over at Livejournal. Any and all traces of Hyuugacest come from her, I swear. ;) And comments, corrections and criticism are, as always, completely welcome and loved! After all, a little encouragement never fails to add a bit of inspiration...

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**Title: Kaleidoscopes**

**Fandom: Naruto**

**Characters/Pairings: Neji/Hinata, Hanabi, Hiashi**

**Rating: PG-13**

**Summary: The Hyuuga are a family with many paths to follow. Here are just a few that might eventually be taken.**

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_Scenario 1: The one where Hinata kills something, and Neji is furious._

He had never seen her face so white, her cheeks so bloodless, for all of their famed Hyuuga haughtier. But then, Neji had never seen her so furious before either. And for all the passion that he knew Hinata kept locked deep, deep down within her, she could have passed for a bloodless statue, so still did she now stay.

"And why," she whispered, and her voice was like ice in his veins, "why, why did you assume I was so innocent anyway? I am a kunoichi and you know what we do when we have to, when we have no other recourse. I don't care if you thought I was some kind of-- of-- of innocent before, Neji-niisan. I did what I had to on that mission-- and I won't stammer and make any apologies for it either."


	2. Chapter 2

_Scenario 2. The one where Neji kills something, and Hinata picks up the pieces._

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She slid into his bed the evening after, memories of how he had once held her in the aftermath of a mission gone terribly wrong circling through her mind until even propriety and embarrassment could not stop her from coming. And in the dark, Neji was not protector or brother or guardian or lover-- he was simply a long line of inky, dark hair and shaky, scattered limbs that seemed to have almost no connection to the man that had so confidently set out to another S rank mission three days before this eve.

"It's okay," she began, tentatively, hovering around his huddled form, not quite daring to reach out and touch him. "It's-- no matter what, I'm here for you. I know that you didn't-- that you couldn't have possibly-- that nobody could have known--"

And when he buried himself in her hair and her hands afterwards, she knew enough to let the rest of the night pass in silence, comfort, peace.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you for all the reviews for this so far! Y'all are far too kind to me. ::blush:: And I'm still updating this... since there will be at least ten drabbles altogether for this series and perhaps even more to come!

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_Scenario 3: The one where Hiashi is unforeseeably perceptive._

The curve of his daughter's back, propped up by his nephew's hand. The line of her jaw, lightly traced by his fingers. The indentation of her mouth, lain against his neck. The smile on his face, echoed by his liege.

Of course Hiashi saw, witnessed, understood all these signs. Who else but the patriarch of a family gone mad could understand so well its healing?


	4. Chapter 4

As always, I am always flattered by the kindness of those in the fandom!

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**Scenario 4: The High School AU where Neji is Hinata's father's illegitimate offspring.**

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Hinata had the same sort of eyes as his, he had known from the very beginning. His would be sister-- half sister, rather-- had exactly the same sort of eyes he did, set in much the same sort of face-- large and wide and grey and framed by the sort of lashes that made other women seethe with envy. Neji's own eyes, however, had probably never had the sort of softness hers held within them now, as they gazed out at him with unmistakable relief.

"Neji-kun," she was saying, and those eyes of hers-- those eyes of her father, his father-- were widening, beautifully widening. "No-- no-- Neji-_niisan_. When I heard, when I finally understood who you really were, I had to come see you. I don't care what happened in the past but... Neji-niisan, if you really _are _my brother, I won't turn you away. I want you to be a true part of my family."

And her mouth made the same shape his did when he was pleased, and her smile was like his smile when he was happy. Echoes upon echoes, set within other echoes-- and none of them anything that he had ever wanted to see.


	5. Chapter 5

Thank you so much for the reviews so far! They really encourage me to keep on truckin' with this. ;)

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_Scenario 5: The one where Orochimaru makes Neji an offer he cannot refuse._

Was it better, he thought after it was done, to exchange the mark upon his forehead for a new one upon his neck? Was it fair to have transferred his servitude from one clan to a new monster entirely?

Or was it simply trading one form of slavery for another-- the basest form of alchemy?

And what would Hinata think if she were still alive, he thought, what would she believe? And he bent his proud face down and tried not to weep.


	6. Chapter 6

Thank you so much for al lthe kind reviews so far! And this goes out especially to Windaerie, she who is total love. If you'd like to PM me for an idea of a Hyuga-related drabble, I would love to write it for you!

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_Scenario 6: The one where Hanabi asks Hinata advice on how to deal with inappropriate crushes._

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"Ice cream," Hanabi began portentously, her characteristically pale Hyuuga eyes gleaming with almost frightening intensity. "Chocolate. Flowers. Candy. All objects that would suffice to demonstrate my feelings adequately."

Hinata tried to fight off a smile as best as she could. Her little sister always did have a propensity to walk into a difficult situation with as much researched information as possible-- even though that was proving a little difficult in this case here. "Hanabi-chan... although those are, er, sweet suggestions, I think maybe you could try to begin by, well, telling the boy you like what you feel?"

Hanabi's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "But oneesan, that wasn't what I read in the courtship manuals I found. And isn't everything supposed to be fair in love and war anyway?"

All right, now trying to fight a grin was proving to be impossible. "I've heard that too, Hanabi-chan. But I'm not sure the 'ambush' approach would work quite as well here."


	7. Chapter 7

Eeep, I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long! I'll have another little something up tomorrow, I promise. ;) And thanks so much for the reviews once more. They're very encouraging!

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**Scenario 7: The one where Hiashi is an Overprotective Father, but missing key information.**

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Up until now, Hiashi hadn't even known that his usually kind and shy older daughter could stare at him in this manner.

"Otousama," Hinata began, her voice just a touch less soft than usual as she gently patted Hanabi on her back, "I know that it has been a long time since you were acquainted with... well, with feminine concerns. But when Hanabi-chan came in crying about bleeding to death from the waist down, you really should have called me in the first place-- not ran for the hospital at full speed, thinking she had an actual _injury_!"


	8. Chapter 8

Reviews are nice, reviews are fun, please, please, please do leave me some. ;)

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_Scenario 8: The one where Hinata 'smoothes things over' with the clan council._

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"Ano," the new clan head of the Hyuuga began, her sweet voice only slightly less tender in front of the council of elders than it was with her friends and true family, "Though I don't doubt their sincerity, I'm sure that your witnesses from the Main House who reported seeing my sister foiling a curse seal ceremony must have been… mistaken. Surely to accuse her of such is to accuse me of the same-- and I believe we have already gone over what trouble that claim would create."

Neji probably would have found the white-- _whiter_-- faces of those surrounding her amusing if he wasn't been busy gaping at her in much the same way.

"Besides," she continued, and Neji had to blink to be sure that his mind wasn't conjuring up the slightly sly curve of her smile all by itself, "I'm sure that if everyone could all simply… forget about such a simple matter, I could make a concession or two in turn. After all, Naruto-kun-- or rather, _Hokage-sama_-- will surely be more disposed to the ideas regarding our clan beginning new construction projects to the east if I were to be the bearer of them, yes?"

And to think… just a few years ago, even those closest to Hinata had worried that by donning on the mantle of Head of the Hyuuga, she would be allowing herself to be made into a puppet of the elders of their clan.

It might have turned out that even the most fragile of puppets, however, could hold create and pull their own strings.


	9. Chapter 9

Thanks again so much for the reviews! They always motivate me. XD

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**Scenario 9: The one where Naruto is tempted to gouge his eyeballs out.**

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"_Urgh_," Naruto repeated for the fourth time in a row, his tongue seemingly stuck in whatever position was necessary to produce such a sound. "Urgh aarrgh uuugh eek aaack aaack _eeeeeeeeeurgh_!"

Besides him, Hinata blinked demurely. "Naruto-kun," she said gently, "perhaps Neji-niisan forgot to warn you that when we Hyuuga invite guests to our bath, we _all _join in."

As if saying such could possibly erase the _hideous expanse of fish-white flesh _he had just witnessed. No, right now, all Naruto could do was wistfully think about getting the asshole to scrub his eyes out with the Sharingan or something. "Urgh aaargh aaack ugh uuuugh _eeeeeeeeerklig_!"

Hinata smiled as though she had received some sort of secret message. "We're not really people who tend to sunbathe, Naruto-kun. We tend to peel quite a bit and, well, it's rather _hard _to get lotion with SPF 300 in mass quantities."


	10. Chapter 10

Thank you so much for all the reviews, everyone! This is supposed to be the ending of the series but I'm thinking that maybe (_juuuuust _maybe) a few more drabbles might soon be written...

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_Scenario 10: The one where someone conveniently dies and no-one takes the fall and people are very unnerved…_

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It was all so strange, Neji thought, feeling curiously distant from all the events swirling around him. It was all so strange. Strange, to see actual tears pricking his Hinata's face. Strange, to see the scraggly line of black clad mourners amassing for someone he had always assumed had known few outside of her team and her family. Strange to see how many she must have influenced in her life, even though she had complained till the end of how she had been second in everything…

And most of all, strange to see how small Hanabi looked in the funeral pyre that would presently consume her fully, as was the custom for members of the Hyuga that had no cursed seals… even though such was not strictly necessary in her case, seeing as how her prized eyes had been plucked out days before her death had ever, blessedly, came. Strange, how small and so frail her body now looked, when she had seemed so strong and so persistent in life, unwilling to let go of anything…

So strange, all of it, and strangest still was how no one would tell them a thing about what must have really happened. Nobody would tell either Hinata or himself a single, concrete fact as to who could have killed Hanabi, or why, and how the strange black marks dotting her neck had come about and why they would not, even now, disappear…

Strange, that silence that superceded anything. And considering how many terrible possible explanations there were... Neji wasn't sure he could blame them either.


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry it's been a while since I updated this! But if it's any help at all, I now have a few good Hinata and Neji ficlets ready to go... and I'd like to ask my readers a question as well. Would y'all kill me if I started putting in some Hinata/Kabuto drabbles in here as well? I can promise you that they'll been good for Halloween...

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**A Few Real Facts About Hinata:**

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Hinata loses her virginity when she's only fifteen years old. There's a clawed bath-tub, a bucket of soap and a rubber ducky involved. She can't recall the rest without wanting to faint an awful lot.

She still can't make sense of Kabuto-san and why he saved her. But ever since, every year for her birthday, she's received a perfumed card with the kanji for survival printed all over it and wonders if she ought to be frightened or charmed.

When she trains with her Neji-nissan, he is kinder to her than her real sibling and more solicitous than her own father. And sometimes, after they face each other as panting, sweaty messes that can barely stand up straight, he smiles at her and she remembers a strategically placed rubber ducky.

They don't always go home on time those nights.

She'd like to be Head of the Hyuuga someday, believe it or not. She likes to think the rest of the world will someday be prepared to see that happen... but if not, she might just have to slowly make it happen. There's too much involved to just let life go on as it always did before. The future happens because people force it to happen... and she doesn't mean to be left behind this time around.


End file.
